Did you know that the vast majority of job seekers visit a company’s career site during their job search? For small business employers, it’s even more essential to have a dedicated career site — a place where you can educate job seekers about what makes your company unique and why they should work for you — in your own words and on your own terms.
It is not enough, however, to simply have a career site. Your small business needs a career site that makes it stand out from the competition while also providing a great user experience for the job seeker. Consider these essential features for a powerful career site.
An efficient application process.
Have you ever tried to apply to a job at your company from your career site? Is it easy to find information about the company and opportunities quickly and easily? Is the application process short and concise? Does it work from multiple browsers, load quickly and doesn’t have any broken links? This exercise will help you understand what candidates experience – and open your eyes to any holds in the process. Remember the more complicated (and frustrating) the application process is, the less likely candidates are to finish it.
A mobile-optimized site.
Is your career site optimized for mobile devices? If not, you could be losing out on valuable candidates. Considering how pervasive smartphone usage is today (64 percent of Americans own smartphones, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center report, and many use them to access online services), it is more important than ever that you make it easy for candidates to view your jobs via a mobile device. The easier it is for candidates to view and access your career site from their smartphone, the wider your reach. (On the flip side, if your career site is hard to load, contains broken links or isn’t easy to view from a mobile device, candidates are more likely to leave your site – and they may not come back.)
Compelling videos.
Your career site should compel candidate to apply. Use your career site as a platform to show candidates what makes your company a great place to work — and what better way to do it than through video? Nothing is more powerful than video for introducing job seekers to your company and the staff, and to get a feel for what life is truly like at the organization. The added benefit of creating videos is that you can get extra mileage out of them by sharing them across your social media challenges.
An invitation to join your talent network.
Not all job seekers who visit your career site are ready to apply, and that’s okay. In fact, it’s common. So how to you ensure you don’t miss out on potentially great candidates by keeping them interested and engaged? How do you compel them to return and apply when they are read? Many companies set up talent networks — also known as resume databases or talent pipelines — for candidates to join. With just the click of a few buttons, candidates can leave their information and opt in to learn about future opportunities. As a result, you get to build a pipeline of qualified candidates and ensure that, once a candidate is ready to apply, your organization is top of mind.
Want more advice and resources for building your small business? Learn about the essential elements of a standout recruitment strategy.
